After 6 months of planning, flow charting, coding and design, we launched the ZipSprout app today.

Developed by Katie Benedetto Jones, and influenced by the ZipSprout team‘s processes, we’ve created a way to organize and track the nonprofits we connect with to better matchmake local organizations with sponsors.

At most summer camps, “bedtime” means ghost stories, giggling and maybe sneaking into the opposite gender’s cabin. At Camp Happy Days, beds are for decorating, team-building and racing, at least once every May.

This week, I spoke with Elizabeth Clark of Charleston, SC’s Camp Happy Days, a week-long camp for kids diagnosed with cancer, and their siblings. Camp Happy Days runs eleven programs throughout the year for children and families affected by childhood cancer, and the bed race is one of their most notorious fundraisers.

We mentioned this story in our Local Engagement Webinar, but I wanted to pass along the details. This is the type of sponsorship we’re proud to create at ZipSprout. ~Megan

A ZipSprout client is hosting 10 breast cancer survivors to attend Susan G. Komen San Diego’s annual dinner symposium and fundraiser on March 23 called Screens Genes and the Choices We Make. Medical science is making extraordinary breakthroughs in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer giving more individuals than ever hope and a better chance at survival. Komen San Diego is bringing notable cancer experts together to review the latest on state-of-the-art cancer research, gene therapy, mindfulness and self-compassion.

This week, I spoke with Mark Kabban of Youth and Leaders Living Actively – “Yalla SD” – in San Diego which provides tutoring, ESL support, college prep classes and educational technology programming to 450 students in the area.

Let’s start with Peter*.

Peter’s father was an anesthesiologist in Iraq until the war turned his family into displaced refugees in Lebanon. They lost everything. Instead of going to school, pre-teen Peter sold snacks at a nearby airport to help support his parents and brother. By the time they were granted asylum in the US, Peter’s education was behind, and he didn’t speak a word of English. But soon after his family relocated to San Diego, Peter joined YALLA. He met friends and got help with schoolwork and college applications. Five years later, Peter is a sophomore at Berkeley and was just accepted into the highly competitive Haas School of Business.

YALLA was made for the thousands of Peters currently living in San Diego. The organization, led by its founder, Mark Kabban, is on a mission to confront social and economic barriers that confront refugee kids.

This week, I spoke with Betsy Hands of Friends of the Chicago River. This nonprofit funds educational programs on the river’s ecosystem, cleanup crews and legislation initiatives that support a cleaner river.

At ZipSprout, we think a lot about local people – volunteers, neighbors, local organizations and publications. But speaking with Betsy reminded me of another set of locals unique to each city: the birds and bees and fish and trees and other wildlife that inhabit a region. Near a quirky improv city along Lake Michigan, the Chicago River is a highway for many species of birds, fish and animals who depend on its calm nature to protect them from the wind and storms of the nearby great lake. And before ‘Friends’ came along, this waterway was as messy as a deep dish pizza.